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Effective Research Publishing: Open Research & Open Access: Financial Support - Gold OA (UKRI Funded Research)

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Research Councils (UKRI) OA Block Grant (April 2023-March 2024)

Open Access Support 2023/2024

UKRI & Innovate UK Funded Research - Open Access Block Grant

What does it cover?

UKRI articles and conference proceedings submitted after 1 April 2022: all peer reviewed research articles, including reviews and conference papers published in proceedings with an ISSN or platform are within scope.

UKRI includes AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC and Innovate UK.

Articles and conference proceedings:

How do I comply with the funder's open access policy?

Make your article immediately open access via a journal/publishing platform (Gold) or use a repository for self-archiving (Green).

Journal Checker Tool 
Add journal title + Funder name + Swansea University to view Plan S compliance status
Check the Swansea University Publisher Open Access Agreements webpage.
These agreements are facilitated financially by the Library to 
cover the cost of gold open access publication at no direct cost for our corresponding authors.

To qualify for funding from the UKRI open access block grant fund:

  • The corresponding author must be a current member of Swansea University. See UKRI FAQ H8. (v.1.8 May 2023)
  • Apply for funding when your article is accepted for publication and provide documentation to support the application (acceptance email).
  • We require you to upload the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) when submitting a request. We will not consider paying your invoice unless you attach the manuscript to your application.
  • We do not accept applications for retrospective conversion to gold open access for articles that are already published.  Please contact the open access team to discuss issues with specific publications. The decision to deviate from the stated policy lies with the research organisation.
  • Apply for financial support from the UKRI Open Access Block Grant by completing the online application form.

 

UKRI Compliance Route 1 (gold) 
a. Publish in a fully open access journal or platform

We can pay article processing charges (APCs) in open access journals. UKRI is providing an Open Access Block Grant to support implementation of this policy.

Compliance Route 1 (gold)
b. Publish in a subscription journal covered by a 'Transitional Agreement'

  • Publish in a subscription (hybrid) journal that is included in a JISC open access 'read and publish' transitional  agreement for gold open access publication. You can check the publisher list and guidance on the Library's Publisher OA Deals & Agreements webpage. There is no open access cost for the corresponding author.

Compliance Route 1 (gold)
c. Publish in a subscription journal with 'Transformative Journal' status

  • Some journals are designated 'transformative journal' status. 
  • We can pay an article processing charge (APC) in a transformative journal if it is not covered by one of the 'read and publish' Library transitional agreement publishing deals.
  • JISC provide details of the criteria journals must achieve in order to meet this transformative status on their website.
  • Check the list of Plan S compliant transformative journals (not exhaustive) or email openaccess@swansea.ac.uk for support in determining if a journal is suitable for financial assistance from the block grant.

Open access publication in hybrid titles outside these agreements will no longer be permitted with payment from the OA block grant.

UKRI Compliance Route 2 (green)
Publish in a subscription journal and self-archive the author accepted manuscript (AAM) in the repository with a CC-BY licence

  • At the point of submission include the following rights retention statement in the funding acknowledgments section of the manuscript and include it with an accompanying letter or email. Publishers have been made aware of the rights retention strategy by the funders.

'For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence [where permitted by UKRI, ‘Open Government Licence’ or ‘Creative Commons Attribution No-derivatives (CC BY-ND) licence may be stated instead] to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.’

  • On acceptance, deposit the accepted manuscript (AAM) in the Research Information System (RIS).
  • Upon publication the AAM should be released in the repository. The Library Research Support team will ensure that the output meets funder and REF OA requirements. We check the manuscript version, journal and funder policies so that the article is freely available to read with a CC-BY licence.
  • No embargo is permitted at first online publication (one month compliance window).

Monographs, book chapters and edited collections are included in the policy from 1 January 2024.
Further information is available from their website.

  • Monographs, book chapters and edited collections are to be made open access within 12 months of official publication under a Creative Commons licence.
  • Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY licence preferred, but Non-Commercial CC-BY-NC (longform) and No-Derivatives CC-BY-ND (research articles) licenses are permitted.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Organisations are expected to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion is considered and supported when allocating funds from the open access block grant.

Transformative Journals

What is a transformative journal?

JISC provide details of the criteria journals must achieve in order to meet this status. You can also find a definition of a transformative journal on the Plan S website. 

To decide if your chosen journal is a transformative journal you can check the list of cOAlition Plan S transformative journals or use the Plan S Journal Checker tool. 

Wellcome and Horizon Europe use the Plan S definition for transformative journals.

       "A Transformative Journal is a subscription/hybrid journal that is committed to transitioning to a fully OA journal. In addition, it must:

  • gradually increase the share of OA content and
  • offset subscription income from payments for publishing services (to avoid double payments).
  • A Transformative Journal will need to demonstrate an annual increase in the proportion of OA research content of at least 5% points in absolute terms, and at least 15% in relative terms, year-on-year.
  • A Transformative Journal must clearly and publicly announce on the journal website its commitment to transition to full OA and agree to transition to full Open Access as soon as possible and in any event no later than when 75% of its research content is published Open Access. The publisher must also acknowledge that financial support from cOAlition S funders will end at the latest by 31 December 2024".

UKRI apply the JISC transformative journal requirement definition for subscription and hybrid journals.

UKRI require a compliant green open access route to be available in a transformative journal. This means that you are able to deposit the author accepted manuscript with a Creative Commons CC-BY licence and release it upon publication with no embargo (rights retention).

For a journal that meets the UKRI transformative journal definition you can follow the green route and add the accepted manuscript to RIS with a CC-BY licence and no embargo, or you can use the gold open access route.

* Use this link to explore the current status of the Springer Compact and Nature Journals agreement negotiation

We will update this guide and our webpage when we have further information.

Get in touch

Contact Open Access Support

Email 

Phone +44 (0)1792 604567                           

Open Access
Library Research Support Team
Singleton Park Library
Swansea University
Swansea
United Kingdom
SA2 8PP